Gaming & Culture —

GameTrak control system and Real World Golf

Ever wanted to play a round of golf without venturing outside? Ars reviews a …

Introduction

GameTrak control system and Real World GolfDeveloper: Aqua PacificPublisher: Mad CatzPlatform: PC, PlayStation 2 (reviewed), and XboxPrice: US$69.99 (shop for this title)Rating: E for Everyone

For most of us, playing a video game hasn't changed much in the last 10 years: we manipulate the images on the television screen using a controller that hasn't really evolved during that time. There have been some different designs, sure, but all in all the controller the PS2 uses still looks like what we used on the NES. The d-pad on the left and the buttons on the right is what a controller is, and it's how we talk with the virtual world. The d-pad turned into an analogue stick, the buttons multiplied and some moved to the shoulder of the controller, but that's pretty much it for innovationat least until the Nintendo Wii hits the stores later this year.

There have been a few games that have broken the mold. Dance Dance Revolution gave us virtual dancing, although to be fair, they just made the Powerpad much more exciting to wannabe ravers (I'm going to get some e-mail for that one, I'm sure). You also have games like Guitar Hero where you interact with the game using a 2/3-size plastic guitar. The list goes on, from Taiko Drum Master teaching you some rhythm to devices like the Eye Toy that allow you to actually use your body as the controller. Many of these products have been a big success, proving that many of us are bored with the standard controller. It limits what you can do in a game, and after a while those limitations start to become blatant.

I love whenever a game takes that bog-standard controller out of my hand and gives me something different. I buy light guns, katana controllers, dance pads, beatmania controllersanything to change it up from just hitting buttons using my fingers. The standard controller should never be considered the only way to play a video game, and now that the technology is cheap and accessible the types of interfaces we used to pay a buck or more per play at the arcades can now be brought home. These types of novel play mechanics also help get the casual gamers into the experience, especially if the player isn't comfortable using a standard game pad. Since everyone thinks he knows how to hold a guitar, everyone can play the air drums, and everyone knows how to kick a ball, these types of games can be accessible to a much wider audience.

Standing in the tee box

That brings us to the product we're looking at today: the GameTrak system with Real World Golf. The first time I had one of these demoed for me at a trade show I thought the whole thing looked a touch overengineered. You have a heavy piece of equipment that sits on the floor, and to that you attach a foot pedal. At the top of the base you have two clips attached to what looks like a thick red fishing line, you pull these lines up and they clip onto gloves you wear on your right and left hands.

How you move your hands, from the up/down movements when you raise or lower your palms, to the side-to-side movement that's tracked by the angle of the lines leaving the base, determines what happens on screen. Follow all that? It may sound a little complicated in its description, but it's easy to figure out when you actually look at the physical hardware.

I was promised that the GameTrak would support a great number of titles, and I'm a little skeptical of that claim. UK residents can purchase Real World Golf, a golfing simulator, or Dark Wind, a fighting game. With the unit's release in the US, we only get Real World Golf, which comes packaged with the hardware for US$69.99.

Well, I'm wearing my silly-looking gloves, I'm clipped onto the GameTrak hardware, and I'm holding my dinky miniature golf club. How well is this all going to work? Is this something that my friends will be interested in, or will I be too ashamed of how goofy it looks to show them? I think the whole idea behind GameTrak was a little silly, but now that the Nintendo Wii is getting more and more attention for movement-based game control, I have to admit there may be a market here.